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I'm writing a thriller novel set in modern-day Vietnam. I need my protagonist, who's wanted for murder, to sneak illegally across the border from Vietnam to Cambodia.

Where are the most porous border areas between these two countries where people are believed to slip across most easily?

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it appears to seek information about evading immigration controls.
    – Gayot Fow
    Apr 2, 2015 at 0:50
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    Travelling illegally is still travelling, on-topic. No need to bowdlerize. What if a dissident fleeing a repressive regime were to ask such a question?
    – hippietrail
    Apr 2, 2015 at 4:08
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    So don't give advice. Just report the news about other people breaking the law. Remember stuff like bribing officials in some places can be both compulsory and illegal. We do our users a disservice by taking a hardline stance on the side of every law of every land. Also I believe we are not allowed to give legal advice on Stack Exchange, and I would group interpreting laws under that category.
    – hippietrail
    Apr 2, 2015 at 5:55
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    Nice try, Vietnam and/or Cambodia Border Control person!
    – AakashM
    Apr 2, 2015 at 9:29
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    @hippietrail that second part is not true. Stack Exchange does not forbid users from giving legal advice. Some jurisdictions may have restrictions against non-lawyers practicing law, but somehow I doubt Cambodia will extradite anyone here for giving the "legal advice" that illegal border crossings are illegal.
    – raptortech97
    Apr 3, 2015 at 3:02

2 Answers 2

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According to this article

Ta Mau is believed to be the largest hotspot for smugglers in the Mekong Delta region. Multiple types of products in large numbers are gathered and classified by day at the Vietnam-Cambodia border gate and are piled into boats and smuggled into Vietnam at night.

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    This is just information. We do not endorse anything. We just provide information -- information that is readily available on the open web.
    – user4188
    Apr 2, 2015 at 4:29
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It sounds like your single protagonist is trying to slip through alone, without being seen at all? One would presume that the best area for this would be as deep in the bush as possible, so far from big cities on either side.

You could take a page from actual news: Montagnard refugee groups are hiding in the jungle along the northern part of the border (Ratanakiri province), and apparently have been doing so (relatively) successfully for at least the last few months. They're fleeing Vietnamese authorities, so it's in the direction you're interested in; though that's not to say that the Cambodian authorities have a positive opinion of them either. Take a look at Radio Free Asia (1, 2) or the Jakarta Post (1) for more information.

You might also want to research North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong tactics during the US-Vietnam war in the 1960s-70s. They regularly crossed over the border in the north to move supplies or forces southward and then back into South Vietnam. This would be more in the vein of finding lesser or un-monitored points and/or bribing border officials, at least for larger movements of materiel.

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